It's discomforting enough having your employer insist on publicly pronouncing you a "genius" when what you actually do is repair iPods for a living. But as if that weren't bad enough, workers in Apple's US retail units are now being forced to wear T-shirts bearing painfully "witty" slogans relating to their work functions.

So, the technical assistants known in Apple stores as "geniuses" will now wear T-shirts adorned with the slogan "Not all heroes wear capes", while store managers will proudly declare "My place. Your place". Creative employees will display the phrase "No pain. All gain", while those who work behind the scenes will at least be spared the humiliation of publicly showing off their "Some artists use brushes. I prefer boxes" slogans.

Apple geniuses, we sympathise. Most of us have had a brush with an embarrassing uniform at some stage in our working lives. My own sartorial low point was in the late 80s when I dressed up like a gnome in fluorescent green nylon dungarees, matching check shirt and brown tie in order to stack shelves at Homebase.

What's yours? And would you agree to go to work in a T-shirt bearing a joke dreamt up by management at your expense?